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The Politics of ‘Persecution’: Scots Episcopalian Toleration and the Harley Ministry, 1710–12*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

D. Szechi
D. Szechi*
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Extract

Religion was the ideological motor of politics in the first age of party. Though the distinction between the Whig and Tory positions on religious issues was often small compared to their internal divisions on other matters, religion was felt to be the only real justification for both parties. The Whigs stood for a cosmopolitan Erastianism embracing protestant dissent, the Tories for a stronger, national Church for which religious uniformity was still a worthwhile goal. The Church was inextricably caught up in these national political divisions, and its own internecine warfare between high and low church mirrored them exactly. It naturally followed from this that religious issues were the most passionately upheld by the Whigs and the Tories, and were those which had most impact on national politics. Hence the Tories put themselves out of office in 1704–5 by the zeal with which they tried to push the Occasional Conformity Bill through, even though it was certain to create a constitutional crisis which would paralyse the British war-effort against France. And the Whigs seized the opportunity to ‘roast a parson’ afforded by Henry Sacheverell’s high church ranting on the theme of ‘the Church in Danger’ by trying to impeach him. Their partial success only served to validate and refresh the ‘Church in Danger’ preaching they had hoped to silence, and they were crushed by an avalanche of outraged Toryism in the 1710 election. Since religious issues were the most keenly felt and constituted the central dynamic of the party battle, the translation of religious conflict from the nation at large to Westminster gives us a glimpse of the real strength of religion’s hold on the concept of party, and hence its influence in contemporary politics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 21: Persecution and Toleration , 1984 , pp. 275 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1984

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Anthony Fletcher and Dr L. M. Kirk of the University of Sheffield for their advice and criticism on this article. This study is based on my thesis which should be consulted for a more detailed account of contemporaneous political manoeuvres and events. See: SzechiD., ‘The Politics of ‘Persecution’: Scots Episcopalian Toleration and the Harley Ministry, 1710–12*.’ Oxford Bodleian MS D.Phil c 1485 pp 74–154, 193–9.

References

1 Holmes, G. S.,British Politics in the Age of Anne (London 1967) pp 97–106, ‘Religion and Party in Late Stuart England’, Historical Association Pamplet, (1975)Google Scholar passim.

2 Holmes, G. S., The Trial of Dr Sacheverell (London 1973)Google Scholar.

3 Riley, [P. W. J.], [The Union of England and Scotland] (Manchester 1978) pp 293–8.Google Scholar

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5 Leith, W. F., Memoirs of Scottish Catholics During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London 1909) pp 264–73 Google Scholar; Oxford, Christ Church, Wake MSS XVII, fol 246.

6 Lenman, B., ‘The Scottish Episcopal Clergy and the Ideology of Jacobitism’, in Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism 1689–1759, ed Cruickshanks, E. (Edinburgh 1982) pp 36–48.Google Scholar

7 Riley pp 9–10; Lenman, B., The Jacobite Risings in Britain 1689–1746 (London 1980) pp 102–3.Google Scholar

8 Oxford, Christ Church, Wake MSS XVII, fol 262; HMC, Mar and Kellie MSS pp 483–4.

9 [The] Lockhart [Papers, ed A. Aufrere] (2 vols London 1817) 1 p 319; Edinburgh, Scots Catholic Archives, Blair Letter: James Carnegy to Bishop Nicolson, 20 Sept 1710.

10 E. Gregg, Queen Anne (London 1980) p 324.

11 K. G. Feiling, The First Tory Party, 1640–1714 (Oxford 1924) pp 430–3.

12 Lockhart 1 p 388.

13 [HMC], Portland [MSS], 4 pp 629–31, 646–7, 650–1, 10 pp 351–2.

14 Ibid 10 p 352.

15 [The London Diaries of William] Nicolson, [1702-1718, ed C. Jones and G. S. Holmes] (Oxford 1983) Dec 1710 and Jan to Mar 1711 passim.

16 Portland 4 pp 652–3; Lockhart 1 pp 346–8.

17 Lockhart 1 p 348; Nicolson 27 Feb 1711; [Edinburgh] S[cottish] R[ecord] O[ffice] Dalhousie Papers GD 45/14/352/2.

18 Nicolson 1 Mar 1711; [Edinburgh] N[ational] L[ibrary of] S[cotland] Wodrow Letters Quarto 5, ep 110; SRO Dalhousie Papers GD 45/14/352/5.

19 Portland 4 pp 663–5; NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 5, epp 96, 106, 110; BL Additional MSS 17677 EEE, fols 110–12.

20 Lockhart 1 pp 339–40; SRO Mar and Kellie MS GD 124/15/1020/14; [HMC] Laing [MSS] 2 p 61.

21 Robert Harley was created earl of Oxford and Mortimer in May 1711.

22 Portland 10 pp 379–80; Lockhart 1 pp 379–80; [The] Wentworth [Papers, 1705–39, ed J. J. Cartwright] (London 1882) pp 251–2; Stafford Staffordshire Record Office Dartmouth MS D 742/U/1/97; NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 6, ep 104.

23 Wentworth pp 247–51, 264–5; BL Portland Loan 29/143/3, 22 Mar 1712; NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 6, ep 57.

24 NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 6, epp 56, 57, 65; [House of] C[ommons’] J[ournals] 17 pp 53–4; Laing 2 p 162.

25 BL Additional MS 17677 FFF, fol 49; CJ 17 p 73.

26 Lockhart 1 pp 379–80; CJ 17 p 69; BL Additional MS 17677 FFF, fol 56; NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 6, epp 67, 70.

27 NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 6, epp 72, 74.

28 Lockhart 1 pp 380–3; CJ pp 103–4; NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 6, epp 75, 78; [Reading], B[erkshire] R[ecord] O[ffice] Trumbull Additional MS 136/3: Ralph Bridges to Sir William Trumbull, 3 Mar 1712.

29 BRO Trumbull Additional MS 136/3: Bridges to Trumbull, 21 Nov 1712; Lockhart 1 pp 384–5; Portland 5 pp 230–1; NLS Wodrow Letters Quarto 6, ep 103; SRO Breadalbane Papers GD 112/40/8/2/2.

30 Portland 5 pp 217, 218–9; NLS Wodrow Papers Folio 35, ep 114; Statutes at Large 5 pp 23, 159–61.

31 BL Additional MS 17677 FFF, fol 260; Oxford Bodleian Carte MSS 238, fols 233–5.